What is User Experience (UX) Design?

April 24, 2023

Still a mystery, I know. It’s such a complex topic and yet very easy to grasp, when explained well of course.

A few areas that User experience covers. — Source Instagram

What is UX “made” of? Is it about coding? Well, not really. User experience falls under the category of design. And in fact, it falls also into many others if you get more and more specific on which industry your product or service is going to serve the users. Yes, serve because ultimately the user experience is considering someone else.

Usually, when we are thinking of user experience in terms of its place in the product development cycle of any digital product, the design and with it the UX, come before the programming of the solution. What is it consist of?

These elements are also only so-called surface-level segments that UX covers. User experience (UX) design alone is the process design teams and designers use to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users. UX design involves the design of the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product, including aspects of branding, design, usability, and function.

When you hear about UX you might also wonder: What is the difference between UX and UI then? UX (user experience) and UI (user interface) are two interdependent terms. As a visual comparison, think about them as UX being the skeleton of the human body, whereas UI is the skin. While UI generally deals with the interaction between users and computer systems, software, and applications, UX deals more generally with a user’s overall experience with a brand, product, or service.

On the topic of the design thinking process when diving into it is recommended that you start with User research. Why? Because you don’t what to end up like IKEA when they first opened their store in Japan in 1974 and failed to meet their customer's expectations. You can read more about the story here. Where did I hear about this? Well, do you remember one of my previous stories on the topic of networking? Yes! I attended another event where one of the speakers was giving a very interesting story-oriented talk on the topic of why we should start with User research. More about such events you can find on Codotto.

Design thinking is an iterative, non-linear process which focuses on a collaboration between designers and users. It brings innovative solutions to life based on how real users think, feel and behave. This human-centered design process consists of five core stages Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test. — Interaction-design.org

And yes, after this interesting event, I am even more interested in preparing a presentation and trying to polish my public speaking skills. My palms start to sweat even just at the thought of it. 😂 But as with everything, I want to do proper research and create a good user experience for the listeners. I would love to focus on the storytelling part of the presentation and make it fun and memorable.

And as always, stay curious! 😊

Want to collaborate?
Send me a message!

Currently available for collaborations.

Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.